The award winning Imperial Hotel Cork is celebrating recent success by giving back to local charities
Two Cork Charities will be presented with a donation of over €10,000 raised by the hotel during the Pandemic as part of their #BecauseWeCare plan.
Cork’s most historic hotel, The Imperial on Cork’s South Mall is showing their appreciation to the local community for all their custom and support in recent times by making a donation of over €10,000 to two stalwart Cork charities. The hotel recently won ‘Best Hotel’ at the CBA Cork Business of the Year Awards and also scooped the Gold Award for ‘Ireland’s Best City Hotel’ at the Hotel & Catering Awards. The two worthy charities who will receive €5,000 each are the Cork Simon Community and the Cork based Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.
The donation is made up of funds raised throughout 2020 & 2021 by the hotel and it’s guests in the height of the Pandemic, a feat made more significant when you consider the many challenges faced by the hospitality industry which included periods of lockdown, temporary closure and restrictions.
Having weathered many storms in their 200 year history, the hotel takes a long term view on things, with a passionate commitment to sustainable business operations at the heart of all they do. Part of the family run Flynn Collection of Hotels, the Imperial has an ongoing commitment to sustainable business practices known internally as the #BecauseWeCare plan, which along with a lengthy list of eco and sustainability goals also includes giving back to the valued local community through charity fundraising.
The donation is made up of funds raised throughout 2020/ 2021 through voluntary donations at the door at events. These included the Imperial’s Guinness Cork Jazz Festival weekend live music performances and their hugely successful ‘Sustainable Market’ held before Christmas. The hotel has also created ongoing fundraising opportunities with invisible cocktails and dessert items as a fixed addition on their menus in the swanky new cocktail bar ‘Sketch’ and trending sustainable restaurant ‘Thyme’. Described as “0% calories 100% charity” these ‘virtual menu items’ (invisible cocktail for sketch and starred items on the Thyme menu) ensure a €5 donation to their nominated charity partner when ordered by a customer.
With restrictions thankfully fully lifted and hotel anticipating a busy summer season it was decided that now was the perfect time to tot up what had been raised to date and make a presentation. General Manager of the Imperial Hotel Bastien Peyraud, together with members of the hotels ‘Green Team’ were delighted to invite representatives from Cork Simon Community and Cork based Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind to enjoy the hotels hospitality and receive a cheque presentation.
Commenting on the fundraising Peyraud explains: “Supporting local suppliers and good causes could be described as our love letter to the city of Cork, a place that gives us so much, we in turn want to do our small part to give something back. The real heroes are the selfless volunteers and charitable organisations to enrich the lives of all the residents of our city and help it to be a more inclusive place to live and do business. We hope our donation to the Cork Simon Community and Irish Guide Dogs will go some way to expressing our appreciation of all the fantastic work they do.”
The Imperial Hotel is also please announce that they have selected two new charity partners to support for the next year, these will be Cork Penny Dinners and Rebel Wheelers. “We are delighted to partner with Cork Penny Dinners who have such a generous ethos of serving those who need support without question or judgement. It is really nice for us to have this connection since this charity was first established right here at the Imperial Hotel in 1888. Rebel Wheelers is another fantastic Cork organisation that was easy for us to select, we love that they empower young people with a physical disability, accessibility and inclusion are things we care about so we look forward to supporting the club who rely 100% on fundraising to keep going”
For more information on the Imperials #BecauseWeCare program see www.imperialhotelcork.com/Sustainability
